City plans to create 5 alternatives for the future of community

Nearly 50 community members attended Wednesday's Cañon City Public Works Committee meeting, most of them wanting to hear about the proposed "Golden Triangle" at Centennial Park.

The committee did not allow public comment or input during the meeting, but did invite Al Ballard, who proposed the plan, to share some thoughts with the group.

Ballard said after sitting through two days of community planning meetings in December, he was bothered that every discussion with the consultants from RNL Design & Architecture and Stantec, Inc., included plans for a proposed resort near the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, and no other options were mentioned.

"It troubled me because I knew there were other options," he said.

The proposed Golden Triangle includes the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, the Arkansas River, the Riverwalk and city-owned property all in one location — a location Ballard says is the prime area for a mini-resort. He said it is an area that is "ripe for a historic downtown resort, services along the river, a community/information center and future access to historic downtown Cañon City, for visitors."

"If we are going to be successful in obtaining community input for the development of our city, county and bridge, it is going to take more than scheduled meetings with consultants, it is going to need open forums for business owners and residents to speak out," he said. "If they speak out in written communications, to anyone in city leadership, they need to receive a response, a receipt from the city administration; they cannot be left out in the cold.

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"This is a good lesson for all of us and a good strategy to make sure people are engaged — rewarded for their efforts."

City Administrator Doug Dotson said the community planning process happening now allows any and all ideas "on the table."

"We have plans for a resort-type of development at the Royal Gorge Bridge," he said. "The process will look at both proposals, as well as a proposal to redevelop the west end of Main Street."

The plan will create five alternatives for the future of the community, including strategies for implementing the plan. RNL will bring back those ideas mid-February; they then will refine the ideas based on the feedback from meetings and return once more with a refined proposal.

"We will go out and test that proposal, a feasibility test, from a market perspective — is it something that will sell," Dotson said. "Financially, can we make it work? Financially, how will we pay for it? What kind of public/private ventures are going to be needed to make something happen for our community?"

Based on the feasibility, the city council will create a proposal to present to the community, which then would be a "brand" for the community.

Councilman Kevin Ditmore said public hearings likely will be Feb. 17-18.

In other business, Mayor Tony Greer proposed the city offer an incentive to new home builds in Cañon City. The city issued about two new home permits annually the last few years, with the highwater mark at about 120 issued in 2006.

"We are at about one percent of where we used to be," he said. "I thought because housing starts are increasing in Colorado, before the market gets here, perhaps we could sort of 'prime the pump' a little bit and look at two things that are significant costs: the cost of water taps and the cost of the pre-paid use tax."

Greer will talk to the local home builders association and see what the city can do to help stimulate its own economic recovery.

"Home starts create primary jobs in our community, and they also increase retail sales with furniture and home decor and those things," he said. "I think we need to do more to create primary jobs, and I'd like to look at a temporary moratorium on some of our fees in order to prime the pump."

Greer said in order to have the fees waived, the city could require builders to shop locally. Dotson suggested creating a task force of council members, city staff and home builders to look at the possibilities.

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